ROYAL Enfield’s UK distributor, Watsonian Squire, is ending its relationship with the brand after more than a decade, leaving no official UK supplier for the Indian-made machines.

The official reason for the split is that Watsonian wants to “concentrate on other activities including the production of sidecars and luggage trailers” – which sounds to us like a corporate equivalent of the classic “he wants to spend more time with his family”.

We’d be surprised if a new Royal Enfield UK distributor wasn’t announced in the very near future.

I have just felt the impact of Watsonian's disengagement. My Electra EFI's exhaust silencer recently developed a fracture along a weld. My dealer agreed the component should be replaced, but was offered absolutely no support by Watsonian. Luckily, being decent folk, the dealer gave me a new silencer from one of their stock machines. They will now have to take the issue up with whoever takes over from Watsonian.

Quite apart from the hassle of pursuing warranty claims (other people's dealers may not be so accommodating), this may put off potential buyers in the UK. Nobody wants to drop several thousand pounds on a new machine which does not have as rock solid parts & warranty backup provision.

Perhaps there were justifiable reasons for Watsonian to decide to stop carrying the RE and after that decision was made I can see where they would refuse to supply additional motorcycles to their dealer network but in my opinion, they have entered into a legal agreement with all of the people who have bought the product from them.

For them to refuse to abide by their commitment to the people they sold motorcycles to is pure bull scat.

Hopefully word will spread about their integrity and potential side car customers will say, "Watsonian? Not me. I want to buy from a company that honors its commitments to its customers."

Kevin has his hands full here and can say that I will definitely not be expanding into Europe. We have new products coming and it will only become better and more challenging. What I can say is the RE is a customer centered company and will NOT leave it's UK customers hanging.